Pokken Tournament English Gameplay Is Charged Up

In further anticipation for the Wii U release of Pokken Tournament, GameXplain previewed a 3-minute round of the game showcasing the gameplay in the single-player Ferrum League. What’s more, the gameplay’s in English, whereas everything we’ve had up til now has been in Japanese. We get a glimpse at some of the menu options in English, plus stat allocations and voice acting. Plus, we get to watch a regular Pikachu fight a Pikachu wearing PANTS. And that’s just too much:

Oh. The announcer. Oh. That’s uh….something. A glimpse at the comment section indicates that her commentary might be mutable, though a first-time player may not want to take that route, since it sounds like she has important explanations of game functions, such as Support Pokemon.

You can see from the Menu the different battle modes we already knew existed, and the set-up of the Ferrum League, with color-coded league difficulties and six-trainer rounds to improve your rank. Tournament and Promotion Test matches are locked on this menu (presumably they become available once you win enough League Matches). And look at that trainer customization!

My favorite thing so far might be all the little background details in the arena. The kid riding his bike past with the Volcarona following behind, the Zangoose and the Teddiursa buddied up on the bench, what looks like a Pokemaniac from the early games in a Pokemon suit…pure happiness.

Pokken Tournament releases for the Wii U worldwide on March 18.